Ending the Criminalization of Addiction

In her two-part career as a public defender and clinical social worker, Lisa has spent 17 years working with people who suffer from addiction and are caught up in the criminal legal system. She is a dedicated advocate for ending the criminalization of drugs and addiction.

As an attorney, Lisa has represented several hundred individuals charged with crimes because of their addictions. As an outpatient addiction therapist, she provided treatment to hundreds of people on probation and parole, and in prison. While working as a clinician at the men’s maximum security prison in Massachusetts, Lisa witnessed firsthand the punitive response to people who are actively suffering from addiction and using drugs in prison; instead of treatment, punishment is imposed, including solitary confinement. Lisa observed the damaging impact of this punishment.

Frustrated by her inability to effect change from inside the prison walls, Lisa returned to the practice of law. She passionately argues that it is unconstitutional, immoral, and clinically damaging to order people who suffer from substance use disorder to be drug-free and impose incarceration for relapse. Lisa and co-counsel Benjamin Keehn argued a closely watched case, Commonwealth v. Eldred, in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which asserted this argument.

The Eldred case received national attention, featured in The New York Times (also NYT Editorial), The Atlantic and VICE, and also on Season 2/episode 8 "Willful Acts" on Slate’s Hi-Phi Nation podcast and NPR's On Point. Although the Court issued a decision against Eldred that avoided answering the question presented (whether it’s constitutional to punish a drug-addicted person for experiencing relapse when relapse is a symptom of the probationer’s substance use disorder), the case generated a national discussion about the intersection between criminal punishment and the science of addiction.

Lisa's relentless advocacy on this issue continues. She initiated a legislative effort to end the counterproductive and inhumane practice of incarcerating people on probation for relapse. An all-star team of advocacy organizations came together and worked with Massachusetts State Senator Cindy Friedman and Representative Ruth Balser to file S.982 and H.1391. Advocates are working to get this bill passed into law this legislative session.

Additionally, on behalf of prominent organizations, Lisa has written amicus briefs addressing important legal issues related to addiction. In 2018, she argued in an amicus brief to the Supreme Judicial Court in Commonwealth v. Plasse that it is unlawful for a judge to incarcerate a defendant for the sole purpose of “treating” a defendant’s substance use disorder in a jail or prison. In January 2019, she submitted an amicus brief with the Health in Justice Action Lab at Northeastern School of Law arguing to overturn the involuntary manslaughter and drug distribution convictions in Commonwealth v. Carrillo.